Annotations for Lost Girls, chapter 10 “Contrarywise” by Alan Moore, Melinda Gebbie, and Todd Klein.
General: The chapter title “Contrarywise” refers to the repeated remark of Tweedledee in Carroll’s Looking-Glass chapter four (though, for what it’s worth, Moore spells it with a ‘y’ in place of the ‘i’ from Looking-Glass.) This title pertains to the chapter in that Tweedledum and Tweedledee are two men, and that gay sex is perhaps considered ‘contrary’ to heterosexual sex. The chapter features Harold Potter visiting Bauer. Bauer seduces Potter.
Page 1
panel 1
- The night Wendy Potter and Fairchild are concurrently having is shown in chapter 12. This chapter repeats the format of that one, with five-panel pages, with four panels stacked in the left column. This chapter also has a similar arc as the prior one. In chapter 12, Wendy Potter is seduced by Fairchild; in chapter 13, Harold Potter is similarly seduced by Bauer. Page-wise, both chapters’ right columns features images and text from Rougeur’s White Book.
- “Biddy” is a derogatory slang term for a woman, often an older annoying woman.
panel 3
- “Das Weisse Buch? Ja.” is German for “The White Book? Yes.” (For the white book page visible, see page 3 below.)
- Rum here is British slang for odd or unusual – a meaning that Bauer does not understand.
panel 4
- The flowers are very phallic.
panel 5
- “Bottoms up” is an expression meaning more-or-less “have a drink.” Here it is a double entendre for putting one’s butt in the air, a position one might take to have gay/anal sex.
- Visually, most of the elements of the panel either point to or revolve around Bauer’s penis, which is right in front of Potter’s face.
- For the white book pages shown, see pages 3 and 4 below.
Page 2
panel 2
- “Natürlich” is German for “naturally.”
panel 4
- Potter admitting that he finds “tomboyish” Gale “a very attractive girl” can perhaps be interpreted as admitting to his bisexual or gay orientation.
- The background elements frame the men’s heads, showing their different orientation. The circle behind Bauer (which almost looks like a halo) contrasts with the upright “straight” lines behind Potter.
panel 5
- The White Book drawings in this chapter are based on those of Austrian painter Egon Schiele. Schiele’s work fits the Lost Girls milleu for several reasons. He was active in nearby Vienna, in the years preceding 1914. His art includes a lot of portraiture that is explicitly sexual, including masturbation and genitalia.
The image on this page appears to depict, top to bottom, Gray, Wooton, and the doorman (?).
- The upper figures appear to be based on Schiele’s 1913 painting Double Portrait of Heinrich and Otto Benesch.
- The lower figure’s face appears to be based on Schiele portraits of publisher Eduard Komack from 1910: this drawing and this painting.
- The text is based on Oscar Wilde‘s 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, though it is Moore’s text imitating Wilde.
- “[Basil] Hallward” is the artist who paints the titular portrait. Moore and Gebbie conflate Hallward with Schiele.
- “Lord Henry Wooton” is a hedonist friend who influences Dorian Gray.
- “Dorian Gray” is the protagonist of Wilde’s novel. The novel begins with Gray’s portait being painted. As Gray ages and becomes more amoral, he magically remains young and unblemished, while the painting ages and degrades.
- The “West End” is the West End of London. (Is there a history of gay men’s activities/places?)
- “Laburnum” is a poisonous flowering tree.
Page 3
panels 1-4
panel 2
- “Ja?” is German for “yes?”
panel 5
- The image does not appear to have a clear match among Schiele’s work, though it somewhat resembles several self-portraits, including this 1910 painting, this 1910 drawing, or this undated painting.
Page 4
panel 2
- The meaning is restated in the following panel, but there is probably a translation for “Mmfuh uh gmmuhn mhn?” perhaps “??? ??? giving mine?”
panel 5
- The man on the left resembles Schiele’s friend Erwin Dominik Osen, who modeled for Schiele several times, for example this 1910 drawing.
- There do not appear to be any Egon Schiele artworks featuring a cat (though the image somewhat resembles 12.8.5).
- “Youth is the time to sin, for vice is quickly past its prime, while virtue never has one” sounds like an Oscar Wilde epigram. Dorian Gray starts with a preface of one-line epigrams, including “Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for art.”
- The pen and inkwell are perhaps sexual double-entendres corresponding to penis and vagina.
Page 5
panel 2
- It is unclear why Bauer’s speech balloon is pink.
panel 3
- “[To] roger” is slang for having sex, penetrating.
panel 5
- The torso and leg of the figure on the left appears to be based on the 1914 Egon Schiele drawing: Reclining Female Nude with Legs Spread Apart. (In some reproductions the leggings appear more ochre.)
- The central figure’s face appears to be based on a 1917 Egon Schiele self-portait painting.
- “Lady Agatha” is a minor character in Dorian Gray.
Page 6
panel 3
- “Ja?” is German for “yes?”
- “Little man” is slang for penis.
panel 5
- The posture in this image feels somewhat like Schiele’s 1918 Portrait of Albert Paris von Gütersloh. The painting is also reminiscent of Schiele’s 1918 painting The Family.
Page 7
panel 2
- “My soldier” is Bauer’s penis, standing at attention. The panel is constructed to show Bauer in rigid straight diagonal lines.
panel 5
- The upper figure is based on the male in Egon Schiele’s 1917 painting The Embrace – arguably his most famous painting.
- “Sargasso” is a deep, swirling sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean.
- “Ophidian” means “related to snakes.”
- “…through the Road of Excess may lead to Wisdom’s Palace, like all roads it runs in both directions” sounds like another or Wilde’s epigrams, similar to “Nothing succeeds like excess.”
Page 8
panel 1
- The format changes on this page, with Moore’s Gray text forming image captions. As Moore commonly does, the text reflects both the Gray story and the Bauer/Potters story depicted. The lack of dialogue means quieter moments, perhaps reflecting Harold Potter’s shame in his having enjoyed gay sex.
- “Something changed within him” describes Harold Potter’s sexual/homosexual awakening.
panel 5
- This does not appear to match a specific artwork by Schiele, but appears somewhat like other art at the time, such as perhaps this Degas or maybe early Picasso (around the time of this painting).
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